Investigating the Race Structure and Population Biology of the Tobacco Black Shank Pathogen, Phytophthora nicotianae

Soil samples will be collected from selected sites in Kentucky during the 2007 growing season, and supplied to hte laboratory of Dr. Kelly Ivors. Sampels will be taken from fields with known histories of black shank, and it is anticipated that 20-25 locations will be samples. Host differentials will be used by Dr. Ivors to assign each isolate to a pathogen race and determine mating type. Isolates collected from Kentucky will be used to generated informative molecular markers for multi-locus gene sequencing. Distribution of markers in samples will be analyzed for trends among pathogen mating types and races, and field histories, etc.